Desano Pizza Bakery is targeting an early May grand opening in Midtown.
You’ve likely driven by their good-looking brick building and brick column patio on 3rd Street.
This will be their sixth location and flagship locations in Los Angeles and Nashville have Yelp ratings of 4.6 and 4.4 respectively – so this isn’t your typical pizza joint.
The space is huuuuuuge.
The inside will be 5,000 square feet with communal-style seating and a bar.
“The restaurant is meant to be comfortable and family-oriented,” owner Scott Desano told me over the phone. His restaurants in Nashville and Los Angeles typically have a multi-generational family vibe in the evenings and then turn more adult as the night progresses (as you’d imagine they would).
With a space this large, they’re clearly expecting to be a high volume business, not a niche pizza spot.
The interior is designed to be comfortable/minimal, not flashy like Ink N Ivy.
There will be a bar in the back left. It’ll have seating for about a dozen.
The outside brick patio is another 1,100 square feet and half will be covered and accessed through giant garage doors.
Garage door patios, so hot right now
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The menu is focused.
Expect fresh, Neapolitan-style pizzas. Small pizzas range from $10 to $15 and large pizzas are $15 to $22.75. Pizzas are thin crust and cook for 80-90 seconds in their authentic Italian ovens.
“On Tuesday nights, ingredients are flown over from the Naples region and then distributed quickly to our restaurants,” said Scott.
Scott also told me not to expect the limitless options that you see on a Cheesecake Factory-style menu.
No pasta. Few build your own pizza options. No gimmicks. Menu options include 11 thin crust pizzas, meatball and Italian prime rib sandwiches, three calzones, three salads and a few desserts (gelato, Nutella dessert pizza and cannoli).
Desano’s fancy wood fire pizza oven
